While the interest of Turkish entrepreneurs in this field is increasing with the National Space Program prepared with the contributions of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, Turkish Space Agency (TUA) and relevant organizations in the country, TURKUZAYSAN, which aims to contribute to Türkiye's goal of landing on the Moon, introduced its vertical lunar landing test vehicle at Teknopark Ankara. TÜBİTAK UZAY Institute Deputy Director Bülent Avenoğlu and TÜBİTAK UZAY Lunar Mission Project Manager Burak Yağlıoğlu also attended the ceremony.
Emre Aklan, the founder of the company, told the AA correspondent that they realized the project by spending intense work and sleepless nights.
Aklan said, "We have completed the prototype of our vehicle, which we hope and aim to contribute to the Lunar Research Program. We have now moved on to the test phase. Even though we have completed the manufacturing, our work continues day and night." he said.
Pointing out that the success rates of space studies are low because they are autonomous missions, Aklan stated that repeated tests should be carried out, especially under space conditions, in order to prevent this failure.
Aklan stated that they are working with scenarios that will be carried out in the form of field tests rather than laboratory tests, and said, "The guidance, control and navigation system subcomponents of any lunar vehicle will be installed on this vehicle and will perform free flights. These flights may occur approximately 100, 200 or even 300 times. Our goal is to verify our subsystems after the tests and thus send a vehicle to the Moon with systems that are more verified and have a higher success rate." he said.
"We are excited about the Lunar Program"
Explaining that the vehicle has a liquid fuel propulsion system and also has a modular structure, Aklan stated that the propulsion systems can be changed and different propulsion systems can be included. Aklan stated that they will strengthen the vehicle thanks to this propulsion system, and that its maneuverability can be provided with the reaction control system and the thrust vector control capability of the main propulsion system.
Emphasizing that they have developed a test vehicle with concepts suitable for lunar conditions and lunar landing vehicles and that they will continue to test it, Aklan said:
"We are all happy and excited about the Lunar Program. After all, we are following it closely as an organization that aims to provide support to the Moon Project. The National Space Program is actually a vision that enables Türkiye to gain an important place in the space ecosystem from beginning to end. We are doing our best to be a part of this program. We started this with the Moon Project. Our work on other targets will continue in the future. It took us more than 3 years to build this vehicle, considering the theoretical infrastructure processes. Physical "It took about a year to manufacture. Our vehicle is absolutely domestic. We made an effort to benefit from local manufacturers and local components. The assembly and integration part belongs entirely to our team. Since it is not a mass-produced product and it is a project-specific product, we have tried to supply our products with local manufacturers as much as possible."
They came first in TEKNOFEST
Aklan pointed out that the motivation for their dedication to this project came from their first place at TEKNOFEST and said:
"From then until now, we have tried to carry our work above the competition conditions. It would be right to say that the picture we see now is an example of how we can already exceed these conditions. Now, we always try to support young people and friends who do these comprehensive studies like ourselves. The vehicles you see here are the vehicles of 3 different Vertical Landing Rocket Competition teams participating from Atatürk University. They had a very successful competition process, they worked very hard. Now they are waiting for a place in TEKNOFEST Şanlıurfa. I hope they will. "We will get good results and good news."
Establishment processes
The "ATAUNI ROCKET TEAM V" team, consisting of Atatürk University students, won first place in the "Vertical Landing Rocket Competition" held for the first time in 2022 at TEKNOFEST, and continued this success in the following years.
Young entrepreneurs won first place by developing the project in question in the "TAI Hangar Campus Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program" in 2025 with the "TURKUZAYSAN" company they founded.
The company, which continues its operations at Teknopark Ankara in İvedik Organized Industrial Zone, aims to support the Lunar Research Program determined within the scope of the National Space Program.
